Media fellowships and creative media workshop (2003-2005)

Till date two Media and Human Rights programmes have been held.

First was on "Media & Displacement";

The second was on "Media and Women in Conflict situation".

The programme consists of three components:

• Three media (research) fellowships of three months duration each - for research on the particular theme of the fellowships (as indicated earlier, in the first programme the theme was "media and forced displacement", in the second it was "representations of women in conflict situations in both national and local media";

• Three media (reporting) fellowships of three month duration each for the publication of original reports in at least three newspapers or audio-visual pieces, or as analytic writings on the issue of conflict, gender and human rights;

• A four-day creative media workshop on human rights and peace, with focus on the theme, and development of media skills.  

Each fellowship carries a total Rs. 30,000/ for the fellowship period. In both research and reporting segments, at least half of the fellowships will be awarded to women applicants if they are of standard. The reports will have to be original, based on first hand coverage, and will have to be published in newspapers or magazines, or in audio-visual forums. In the research segment, the articles have to be well researched. They will be first  evaluated, and later published by CRG. All writings will be subsequently put on CRG website.

Recipients of the both types of fellowships (reporting and research) will be expected to participate in the media workshop with which the programme will conclude. Participants and the resource persons of the workshop will discuss the reports and the research writings. In this way the products of the research and reporting segments will become resource material for future work in this area, and will become available for all engaged in similar work. The workshop discusses themes of creativity and objectivity, reporting on conflicts and human rights abuses, techniques of creative writing, preparing scripts and their significance, editing norms and skills, and other related issues. The workshop results in reports, research publications, and an anthology of creative writings of a victim community or group. 

The programme was supported by WACC (London).

For details of the two programmes:

Media Programme I

• Report of the First Creative Writers' Workshop, titled, "Media and Displacement 1" (2003)

• Research Writings, titled, "Media and Displacement II: Three Case Studies on Media Coverage on Forced Displacement of Population in Contemporary India" (2004)

• A Compilation of Creative Writings, titled, "Media and Displacement III: Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal - A Sourcebook" (2004 / available in print only)

Media Programme II

• Report of the Second Creative Writers' Workshop, titled, "Gender, Media, and Human Rights" (2005)

• Research Writings, titled, "Unequal Communication: Health and Disasters as Issues of Public Sphere" (Policies and Practices No. 5, 2005)